Blog 06.12.19 - Popped, Locked, Stopped

Blog 06.12.19 - Popped, Locked, Stopped

Good evening.

I have just had a very Dutch experience. They apparently have bike cops. Who stop you and check your bike. And my bike, apparently, was not up to code because the lights are a bit too dim. Time to take the bike to the shop, I think. I'd rather not get fined or arrested, even? Dear lord, I hope they don't do that. 

So that was an experience I had, while cycling home from work this friday... Also it was raining. And I had to cycle roughly 6 km upwind. If it wasn't so absolutely hilarious, I might be a bit mad.

The weather that wasn't.

Anyway, let's chat about the work placement!

Smile, be nice to customers, get horrible back pains because of your horrible posture. These things ring true, no matter what country you happen to be working in.

As I've mentioned, our work placement is taking place at Hema in the city of Hoorn. Our first days were thursday and friday. If I recall correctly, we'll be returning there friday next week, and monday-thursday on the week after that.

Due to the inherent language difficulties present when working a primarily customer service position in a different country, our assignments consisted primarily of shelving goods and cleaning up. I don't really mind, because I got to do some light customer servicing on the side as well. Obviously, I could only help customers who were open to conversing in english, and even then the help I could offer was limited. But that's the way it is in any new job. You learn by doing, so that's what I did. By friday, I managed to help a couple customers out without assistance from the more senior staff, which was very satisfying.

As a chain of stores, Hema appears to be very tightly organized, all the different goods have a precisely determined spot on the shelves, which can be looked up with a handy PDA. The goods are organized first by section, then by shelf, and finally horizontal position on the shelf. Very convenient!

That's it, didn't have the time or the energy to do much else. Work is exhausting.

Weekend should be an Amsterdam adventure, if nothing goes wrong. Fingers crossed!

- Friendly neighborhood egomaniac, Tuomo

Blog 04.12.19 - Everything is CHAOS and I kind of love it.

Blog 04.12.19 - Everything is CHAOS and I kind of love it.

The following blog was written and intended to be published on Thursday 4th of December, but had to delayed due to Wi-fi related foibles

The past few days have been a rollercoaster of emotions and exhaustion.

I'm not used to this high an amount of uncertainties in my daily life, and I'm supposed to find energy for the work placement on Thursday and Friday as well! Not to mention the weekends, of course I have to do something on the weekends, I'm in Holland for crying out loud!

I can't recount all the things that have happened on the past two days, so here are some scattered thoughts about my experiences.

Attended a bunch of classes, YEAAAAAH!

On tuesday we attended a few classes, all of which were very interesting experiences. The english class led by Mr. Turnhout specifically was a lot of fun. I had the opportunity to discuss a variety of topics with everyone, which was absolutely delightful. I haven't been able to speak this much english in a long while.

Went on an adventure across the sea! (Actually it was a lake that used to be part of the sea.)

On wednesday we went on an excursion to Bataviastad with two (I think?) other classes. Bataviastad is a collection of various fashion outlet stores, where all sorts of brands are sold at "cheap" prices. Though the difference between a pair of jeans costing 150,99€ or 79,99€ doesn't mean much to me. I'd rather get a pair for 30€ at most. Anything above that I feel is above my paygrade, thank you very much!

Bataviastad turned out to be an interesting place to visit, however expensive. Observing Dutch customer service, their presentation of products and, of course, their famous window displays was an educational experience. The displays definetly had a lot of effort put into them.

The most interesting part of the trip however, was the trips to and from. An hour long bus trip with no internet? Heavens no, whatever shall I do to pass the time!? Have conversations with the people around me, I suppose. I actually ended up enjoying the journey more than the destination. I had lovely and insightful conversations with the teachers and one of the students on the road, it was absolutely lovely. Even if we had to yell to eachother most of the time. These students, a rowdy bunch they are. A bit exhausting for a reserved introvert like myself.

Sunrise and sunset are still gob-smackin' gorgeous, what else is new?

Every trip to and from school has been absolutely fantastic. We travel with the bicycles graciously provided for us by the school and despite my poor state of physical fitness, I've throughly enjoyed riding around the place. The farmland that Berkhout consists of still looks absolutely stunning, my time of departure and arrival always seems to coincide with sunrise or sunset. A happy coincidence, no?

Ongoing battle againstm local traffic, part II.

The traffic culture in Holland still absolutely terrifies me. Sure, you've got bike lanes, which might make you feel safe. But then sometimes you don't, and you're expected to ride on the same road cars travel on. This makes me very nervous. Very. Not to mention, even the sacred bike lanes aren't safe, because some motorized vehichles such as scooters make liberal use of them as well. I have seen way too many nearly-accidents to count on both of my hands, myself included in a couple as well. Well, at the very least all the pedestrians should be feeling nice and safe, I hope.

Work placement on Thursday and Friday... Oh no.

Me and Gustav will be taking part in work placement at an establishment called Hema, over in Hoorn. It's sort of like Tokmanni, if that makes sense? It's a very general store that sell a variety of goods. On Wednesday we met Dimitri, who is sort of the person in charge around there. We got our keys and uniforms and are supposed to head there tomorrow on Thursday at roughly 9am. Dimitri assured us that they'll have plenty of things for us to do around the shop, even if we can't necessarily serve customers in the way we are used to. The language barrier will probably be the biggest issue during the work placement. I'll try not to get too stressed about it.

Self critique on my linguistic performance.

Speaking is difficult. Even when speaking finnish, I tend to throw words out of my mouth at stupidly high speeds and the problem is still present when speaking english. I will need to learn to slow down, without sounding condescending of course. This will be especially important during the work placement. I will potentially have to be able to help and direct customers who may be lacking in their understanding of english. Speaking rapid fast, even if it's technically correct, will not be helpful when the other party is not proficient in the language and just wants to know where we keep our selection of trousers.

This ended up being a two-pager, sorry about all the text. I have a lot things on my mind, especially when physically and mentally exhausted. 

- Your local rapscallion and ne'er-do-well, Tuomo

Blog 02.12.19 - Mundane Culture Shock

Hello, hello, my name is Tuomo Immonen and I am a 3rd year Business Administration student at Hyria Vocational College in Hyvinkää. 

From 02.12 to 20.12 I will be attending Horizon College in Hoorn, Netherlands as an exchange student. I'm accompanied by one other student by the name of Gustav, here on the same business as I.

I and Gustav arrived in Netherlands yesterday morning, so we've had some time to establish ourselves, so to speak. Our accomodations at Topparken Westerkogge in Berkhout seem nice enough, if a bit lacking in some amenities. Nothing you can't buy from a local store though. 

You can find a store or two a few kilometers away in either direction, which one could describe as either inconvenient or the opposite, depending on attitude. 

Berkhout is a very flat place, nothing but the horizon to look at.
I see where the college might have gotten it's name.

Today was our first day at Horizon College proper, this is where the fun starts. After some briefing from the teachers responsible for the exchange, we met two of the students from the college named Duke (spelled like Duke Nukem, I assume) and Shawn. Bright young lads, they are. 

Later during the day, we were introduced to the rest of the class that should be working with us in the coming weeks through some "speed dating". Really, it was just some nice friendly conversation between us and the students.

Lunch.

One of our lovely teachers, Okke showed us around the place a bit and presented us with our bikes. He also gave us a bit of a tour around the town of Hoorn. Perhaps it went on for a bit too long, because he had to leave us in a hurry to teach his afternoon class, bless his soul.

Hoorn seems like a wonderful town and I can't wait to explore it further.

Did I learn anything these last two days?

I'm still trying to get my bearings, which will take some time. Naturally, most of the language you'll find around Holland is dutch, of which i know as much of as personal fitness and healthy eating. So none. 

Getting around the town(s), school and shopping is a bit of a challenge still, but it'll get better over time, I would hope. On the bright side, I still haven't found a local I couldn't converse in english with. The easiest way to learn something is to ask another, after all.

Learning the ropes of how Holland functions will take it's time, but so far it has been fairly familiar if a bit strange in some areas. I've had something of a mundane culture shock with how pedestrian and vehicle traffic is organized, with bike lanes and other things of that nature. I'm still a bit hesitant to take my bike around town, what with all the sharp turns, narrow sidewalks and sharing the road with cars and other vehicles. Okke assured me that it's all safe and stuff, considering that the cars don't go past 30 km/h in town, but the idea of getting slammed by a semi still doesn't sound very appealing.

I am a bit nervous about being able to perform well in the studies I'm attending. We are supposed to keep a log of our daily activities regarding school, similiar to this one, however we're also meant to do some "desk research" about various different topics such as: "What are best practices?" No idea what that entails, even after I asked Mick, our other teacher. I'm sure it'll be fine.

That's it for today and yesterday, for the most part. We have quite a bit of time to roam around as we choose, so let's make the most of it.

Also, the tap water tastes really weird and the Wifi is a nightmare.

- Tuomo